Some people are just stupid beyond reasoning...

Okay, I am a member of the LDS Church. This is not a thread about supporting or bashing the LDS Church. If you feel so inclined to do that, then please start your own thread doing so, because you have the freedom and right to perform those actions if you so desire. This is a thread about stupid people, and I mention my religion simply because it is relevant.

I was having a religious discussion with a girl one day, and she looked at me and said "well, how do you even know that Joseph Smith was real?" I was taken back, so I asked her what she meant, and she repeated (saying it differently this time) "how do you know that he existed?"

Some people are just beyond help...does anyone have any similar stories about idiots?:bnghd:

[edit on 12/7/2004 by petey_pongo23]

Joseph Smith...Jesus Christ...it's so hard to keep these religious-type figures straight.

I mean, next you'll be trying to tell me the Dalai Lama is real!

Just trying to help you out with interesting comebacks.

How about:

"How do you know that YOU are real?" I mean, you have had dreams which, at the time, seemed to be actually happening. And then you woke up. So how can you be certain that THIS is not merely a dream you don't recognize as such?

Existential relativism is a closed system. The problem is, we all have to make some assumptions in order to get anything done in life. The sophomore you were talking to is trying the old Dungeons & Dragons gambit of "I attempt to disbelieve, to see whether the monster will vanish." That ruse only works in virtual reality.

It is easy to diffuse arguments, if you simply disbelieve your opponents assumptions.

Oh yeah, well, I disbelieve in your own disbelief! You are a secret LDS'er, and don't even know it!!!!

Have a nice day.
(If you're really there, that is)

I wouldn't worry about proof of Joe, and you really should be progressing the values of your spiritual faith, regardless of Joseph Smith. If LDS bases their philosophy on Christ, then try to refer more to him and not Joe, who is at best a messenger.

I asked her "did your great grandfather exist?" I don't think that she found the humor in that statement. Bless her heart, I think that she thought she actually had a point there. She was attempting to talk all of that smart talk like she knew what she was talking about, but then she spoke the statement that I mentioned. Wow...some people just amaze me...

was having a religious discussion with a girl one day, and she looked at me and said "well, how do you even know that Joseph Smith was real?" I was taken back, so I asked her what she meant, and she repeated (saying it differently this time) "how do you know that he existed?"

Some people are just beyond help...does anyone have any similar stories about idiots?

Yes my story involves two LDS elders who came to the door to earbash me once. I deliberately asked stupid questions hoping to annoy them so much that they would become annoyed with me and bloody well bugger off and leave me be. but they were so stupid they didnt see the obvious, it went straight over their heads and they began explaining all over again. In the end I had to spell it out! Talk about Stupid indeed!

p.s
pete, no deliberate offence to LDS , ive had the same thing with jehovas witness, baptist etc etc. They all seem to be twice as thick as a housebrick and not half as useful. why do they persist after it being made quite clear your not intrested in their philosophies?:bash:

[edit on 12-12-2004 by instar]

I've got one to top that. It was about 2 years ago, and I was sitting in my sophomore History Class while the teacher was talking about something religious (And how she can't push her opinion on us). She's one of those teachers that apparently thinks being nuetral means that you can't say anything supporting Christianity, but everything else is fine. So she's talking, and this ditzy girl (Sporting her "Punk Princess" shirt) raises her hand. She then says something that would eternally be burned into the hall of stupidity of my mind. "If Jesus was the first man on earth, then who wrote the bible?"...or something to that effect. I was stunned. She had rendered me speechless. The teacher then goes on to say "Oh, good point!". Attempting to gain back my sense of reality, and that I am in fact in a high-school history class, I raise my hand to counter. I start to say "Actually, it doesn't say anywhere-". I was cut off in mid-sentence by the teacher saying "Ah! ah! no religious discussions in the classroom!" I then went home and hit myself over the head with a hammer repeatedly trying to erase what just happened from my memory.



[edit on 12-12-2004 by Herman]

Originally posted by instar
why do they persist after it being made quite clear your not intrested in their philosophies?:bash:

[edit on 12-12-2004 by instar]

The idea is that they are supposed to teach the willing, however there are some LDS missionaries out there (and members of other religious places) that don't understand this. If you say "no thanks", then they should thank you for your time and go about there way.

I have been blessed with understanding people (except for one LDS missionary). I even had a couple of Jehovah Witnesses coming over to my house (sitting on the front porch) teaching me how to read Hebrew...before my "God fearing Christian that believes in an honest and burning hell" (he called himself that) neighbor ran them off with a weedeater...way to be a Christian man. But it was funny, because he still had his goggles on (with grass pieces all over his face).

I cannot remember the exact anecdote (it's probably apocryphal anyway.)

In a Medieval monastery in Germany, there's a monk whose job it is to feed the poor who arrive looking for food at the monastery gate. There is always such a crowd that it would disturb the monks at their prayers, and so this monk, we'll call him Hans, is sent to give out food from the monastic larder so the poor don't starve.

It gets to be such a big task that Hans is awarded an assistant. We'll call him Dieter. Dieter doesn't always feed the poor, but when Brother Hans's other duties require him in the chapel at the noon hour, or if Hans has made a trip to town, Dieter knows its his job to distribute bread and a little cheese to the homeless at the front gate.

One day, dieter is praying in his cell and the Blessed Virgin Mary appears in all her glory, attended by a choir of angels. She tells Dieter that she has a message of a miracle that will make the monastery the site for pilgrimages from around the world soon. She tells Dieter that She will reappear on Friday with the big announcement.

On Friday, Mary and the angels show up in the monk's cell, but Dieter isn't there. It turns out that Hans was sick, and so it was Dieter's day to feed the poor. The Abbot was furious that his monastery was passed over for a miracle, because of one monk's priorities.

The Abbott dismisses Dieter from the cell where Mary appeared, and builds a chapel to Mary. The Abbott sets a vigil of monks in constant prayer in what had once been the monk's cell.

Next Friday, Mary appears. Turns out the big miracle is that a Christian actually cared about the poor more than he did his own salvation, and earned God's approval for living the Gospel, instead of merely talking about it.

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39

neighbor ran them off with a weedeater

PMSL, Thats the funniest thing I heard in ages, im rolling on the floor. The imagery it invokes is hilarious!

p.s
pete, no deliberate offence to LDS , ive had the same thing with jehovas witness, baptist etc etc. They all seem to be twice as thick as a housebrick and not half as useful. why do they persist after it being made quite clear your not intrested in their philosophies?

I used to preach right back at them.

I even had a speech all prepared, it was basically about how the fallen angel known as the Morning Star will rise up and again challenge the throne of Heaven. I'd explain that signs of his impending victory are everywhere, that all one needed to do was watch the nightly news to see how infused the land has become with evil. I begged them to see the darkness, not the light, because in the end, the darkness will devour the light, and that only those who embrace the darkness will be saved!

Well, I don't believe any of it, but it sure was fun to make them run off, hehe...

You could always try Skadi or Bangin's approach, and answer the door naked....

Actually I answered the door to jehovas witnesses once with my 9 ft python around my neck! They took one look at him and went pale, i guess theres connototions attached to "the sepente" lol
I said please come on in ladies, while standing quite close (within strike range) to them.
They immediatly said "Oh no ,its alright, we can see your busy, well come back another time" (they didnt sound convincing) and they
quickly waddled off next door , the shoes clickety clacking down the front steps as they went!
The python wasnt going to strike or anything but they didnt know that, i think they thought he was evil! lol

Right, instar, because of course everyone knows that the devil was once a snake, and so he might as well still be. Anyone with a snake for a pet must worship the devil.

Just a little note to the person who originally started this thread. I have seen more deliberately ignorant people within the LDS faith than any other group of people that I've had dealings with.

These people intentionally shut themselves off from real information, with verifiable facts, all for the sake of their faith. Does that seem intelligent? I don't think so.

But you're right. Anyone questioning Joe Smith's existence is reaching pretty hard and far to try to put a Mo in their place. That is stupid. Funny but stupid.

Originally posted by petey_pongo23
"how do you know that he existed?"

But could you answer the question? Will you answer it for me? I will ask, How do you know this person existed?

Well, how do you know that anyone in the past existed? Newspaper accounts from upstate New York mention him. I believe there are documents from when his family farm was sold, and they refer to him.

Then there are the sermons of mainstream ministers, and attack-articles in the popular press, attacking Nauvoo City is Missouri as a Polygamistic orgy. SOMEONE was the victim of the lynching. You could always check the court records of the Carthage county jail.

Now, jailers and police, even the governor could have been PAID to fabricate the story of a mythical person they had jailed, and whom the mob broke in and lynched. But what would these people's motive be?

If you don't believe court records, then what's your threshhold for evidence?

How do you "know" that you exist? Seriously. How do you know that you are not a computer simulation I developed about 2 weeks ago, and that all your previous memories are actually a fiction written by my team of coders? What level of evidence to you demand?

How do you "know" anything?

Perhaps "knowledge" is an impossibility.

Doc.. That was kinda my point. I dont think it a stupid question, that why I was putting it back out there.

The only stupid question is the one not asked.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people...

Originally posted by Herman
She then says something that would eternally be burned into the hall of stupidity of my mind. "If Jesus was the first man on earth, then who wrote the bible?"...or something to that effect. I was stunned. She had rendered me speechless. The teacher then goes on to say "Oh, good point!"

Aside from the obvious total lack of knowledge displayed in the question (not to mention the response)...

If Jesus was the first man on earth then what prevents him from writing the bible? You know, being the first man and all he could have invented paper, ink, ball-point pens, steel, gunpowder, agriculture...that sort of thing.

You know my sister is busy designing the perfect "I'm stupid, don't ask me questions" hat at the moment.

This would be the same sister who, when confronted by a similar situation and a similar teacher, told the teacher to shut-up and listen to someone who knew something for a change!

...Yes, they're called Republicans who voted for anyone named Bush more than once.
Them, and the people who "can't believe it's not Butter".

that's something that I've always thought about since I was a small child...

No one can verify that anyone else is a "human being", except for a mother that has given birth to a child. That, of course, is assuming that the woman giving birth is a "human being" and that no non-human beings were used to create the child. It's a very perplexing idea if you think about it. I can't even verify that I am a "human being", but I have an even dumber example of a person...

I was talking to a Canadian female soccer player during exam week during Spring semester in 2004. She said, "so you don't have sex? Is that a religious thing or what?" I told her that was one of the reasons, but that there were more. So she went on to tell me that her religion allowed her to go out and have sex with people. I was intrigued, because she described it as a religion that encouraged her to go out and perform these actions, so naturally I asked her.

She said, "I'm Baptist". So I said, "then you are a Christian?" Her reply was "I guess so, yeah." Then I informed her that she was a Protestant, but she corrected me and informed me that she was a "Baptist". I tried to explain to her about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation and all of that, but she was just beyond help. Some people just say things that make you mind go "wow..."

[edit on 12/23/2004 by petey_pongo23]